(AUFKLÄRUNG IN ZEITEN DER VERDUNKELUNG)
3–11 October 2026
Canetti House · 12 Slavyanska Street · 7000 Ruse, Bulgaria
THE INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE FESTIVAL RUSE
For almost two decades, the International Literature Festival Ruse has established itself as a cultural forum with a strong European and international presence. Bringing together contemporary literature and the arts, the festival creates an open space for encounters between authors, ideas and audiences through readings, discussions, film and visual arts.
At the heart of the festival is the Canetti House – an alternative cultural space closely connected with Ruse and the memory of Elias Canetti. Here, literature becomes more than text: it becomes conversation, encounter and shared experience.
In 2026, the festival celebrates its 19th edition, from 3 to 11 October, under the motto POLYLOGUE – THE VOICE OF REASON. The events of the 19th Literature Festival will take place at the Canetti House, the “Ljuben Karavelov” Regional Library, and the University Library of “Angel Kanchev” University.
At a time of competing realities, accelerating media environments and growing polarization, the festival asks what literature can contribute to our understanding of the present – and how dialogue, memory and critical thought can resist simplification and informational noise.
This year’s program brings together Bulgarian and European voices whose works cross borders between languages, generations and experiences. Migration and belonging, memory and historical trauma, identity and displacement, the relationship between the virtual and the real, and the dialogue between literature, journalism and film form some of the central threads running through nine days of encounters in Ruse.
POLYLOGUE is an invitation to listen to different voices without reducing them to a single one – and to rediscover literature as a space in which reason, imagination and human experience can meet HERE and NOW.
Saturday · 3 October
5:30 p.m. Festival Opening
WHAT Short opening remarks by the Chairperson of the International Elias Canetti Society and festival guests, welcoming audiences to the 19th International Literature Festival Ruse and its 2026 theme, “POLYLOGUE — THE VOICE OF REASON”.
6:00 p.m. Elli Unruh · “Fische im Trüben” (“Fish in Troubled Waters”)
WHO Born in 1987 in Georgievka, Kazakhstan, Elli Unruh grew up in southern Germany and works at the German Literature Archive in Marbach. Her debut novel was nominated for the 2026 Leipzig Book Fair Prize.
WHAT A clear, poetic family novel about a Russian-German Mennonite community in southern Kazakhstan, shaped by religious and family traditions as well as dispossession, persecution, deportation and Soviet surveillance.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Prof. Dr. habil. Penka Angelova
READ BY Alexander Uzunov
7:00 p.m. Jehona Kicaj · “ë”
WHO Born in 1991 in Suharekë, Kosovo, Jehona Kicaj came to Germany with her parents in the 1990s. She is a writer, literary editor and publisher; her debut novel “ë” received literary distinctions in 2025 and was shortlisted for the German Book Prize.
WHAT A novel about silence, memory, language and the after-effects of the Kosovo war on a family marked by violence and displacement. It’s unusual title points to a letter central to Albanian yet often left unpronounced.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Prof. Dr. habil. Penka Angelova
READ BY Yasena Gospodinova
Sunday · 4 October
5:30 p.m. Rumyana Ebert · “Schwimmen in der Tinte” (“Swimming in Ink”)
WHO Born in Plovdiv in 1945, Rumyana Ebert emigrated to Germany in 1966 and lives in Berlin. Her work brings together a life shaped by the exact sciences, music, poetry and prose.
WHAT An autobiographical work about emigration, escape from a totalitarian regime, fragmented memory and the difficult search for freedom and selfhood in a new environment.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Prof. Dr. habil. Penka Angelova
READ BY Yasena Gospodinova
6:30 p.m. Xaver Bayer · “Hauch” (“Breath”)
WHO Austrian writer Xaver Bayer joins the festival with his new epistolary novel “Hauch”.
WHAT Veit, a writer, and Dora, a translator, choose to spend a year apart while remaining connected through handwritten letters. Set against the backdrop of a dystopian present, nature—the wind—“and not least the gentle gusts of our breath, … even the most delicate breath”—becomes a powerful protagonist in the novel.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Prof. Dr. habil. Penka Angelova
READ BY Yasena Gospodinova, Alexander Uzunov
Monday · 5 October
5:30 p.m. New Publications from Elias Canetti Publishing House
WHO Prof. Dr. Sc Penka Angelova presents “The Voices of Marrakesh: Notes from a Journey” by Elias Canetti. Moderator: Detelina Kamenova.
WHAT Premiere of the first Bulgarian edition of “The Voices of Marrakesh: Notes from a Journey” by Elias Canetti, translated by Penka Angelova and Iva Bekyarova. In fourteen observations, Canetti looks back on his journey to Morocco and his encounters with the people, the voices, and the multicultural world of Marrakesh in the 1950s.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Detelina Kamenova
READ BY Students from the Elias Canetti Vocational School of Economics and Management – Ruse
7:00 p.m. Film Screening · “Until Tomorrow” · Stanimir Trifonov
WHO A film event extending the festival’s dialogue between literature and cinema.
WHAT Screening of “Until Tomorrow” by director Stanimir Trifonov, followed by discussion.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Detelina Kamenova
Tuesday · 6 October
5:30 p.m. Elizabeta K. Pitulkova · North Macedonia
WHO Elizabeta K. Pitulkova is a contemporary Macedonian poet, born in Bitola and living in Gostivar. She is the author of several poetry collections, founder and chair of the cultural association “Kulturna Bran”, and founder of the international poetry festival “Literary Sparks”.
WHAT A poetry reading from Pitulkova’s lyrical work on time, memory, silence and inner experience, including “And Time Knows How to Stop”, “If We Existed Since Yesterday” and “And These Stones Breathe”. Bulgarian translations by Ivan Topalski.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Detelina Kamenova
READ BY Kalina Milanova
Wednesday · 7 October
5:30 p.m. Zdravka Evtimova · “Kavarna Stories”
WHO Zdravka Evtimova is a Bulgarian writer and translator. She is the author of short stories and novels that have been published in 32 countries worldwide, a multiple recipient of national and international awards and a leading figure in contemporary Bulgarian literature.
WHAT A presentation of “Stories from Kavarna.” Evtimova blends the extraordinary with the familiar realities of everyday life, exploring humanity in difficult circumstances, survival in a toxic social environment, and poverty and dignity through vivid dialogue, empathy, and humor.
WHERE “Ljuben Karavelov” Regional Library
MODERATOR Assoc. Prof. Velislava Doneva, PhD
Thursday · 8 October
5:30 p.m. Teodora Dimova · “Everything That Happens” · Moderator: Toni Nikolov
WHO Teodora Dimova presents her new novel, which is set to be published in October.
WHAT T The novel explores a chapter of Bulgarian history that has not yet been fully examined over the past 80 years and has long been misrepresented. It is dedicated to the memory of Dimitar Peshew, who, along with others, prevented the deportation of Bulgarian Jews during World War II. Reflections that portray the story from multiple perspectives.
WHERE University Library of “Angel Kanchev” University
MODERATOR Prof. Dr. habil. Penka Angelova
READ BY Evgeniya Yavasheva
Friday · 9 October
5:30 p.m. Hungarian Cultural Institute
WHO Christina Sokolova: Cultures of Success.
WHAT Presentation of a book on comparative intercultural studies of cultural models of success in Bulgaria and Hungary.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Dr. Viktoria Ivanova
7:00 p.m. Hristo Rayanov & Denitsa Doncheva · Film Event – “(E)lena”
WHO Hristo Rayanov and Denitsa Doncheva are part of the festival program for an event centered around a film “(E)lena”.
WHAT “FILMARI” Summer Film Academy – From Idea to Film. The process of creating a short film by students.
WHERE Canetti Haus
MODERATOR Hristo Rayanov
Saturday · 10 October
5:30 p.m. Boris Minkov & Neli Piguleva · Contemporary Literary Periodicals
WHO Prof. Boris Minkov and Neli Piguleva will participate in a discussion dedicated to contemporary Bulgarian literary journals and editorial culture.
WHAT A meeting and discussion centered on the literary magazines “Brod” and “Stranitsa”: their editorial identity, their place in contemporary literary culture, and the conditions for publication and distribution.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Nely Piguleva
7:00 p.m. Bisera Zankova & Ivo Indzhov · “Literary Journalism in Bulgaria”
WHO Dr. Bisera Zankova is a media-law researcher and consultant; Dr Ivo Indzhov is a media researcher and scholar of journalism.
WHAT Their 2025 book explores literary journalism as a unified genre with its own history and contemporary forms, tracing Bulgarian and international traditions and arguing for analytical depth, aesthetics and experience in an age dominated by speed and short messages.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Dr. Bisera Zankov
Sunday · 11 October
5:30 p.m. Ramona Boldizsar · Online Polylogue & Inner Monologue
WHO Born in 1993, Ramona Boldizsar is a Romanian writer, book editor and coordinator of the contemporary-literature series “Amaterasu” at Cartex. She has published poetry and the 2026 short-story collection “Good Girls. Decent Girls”.
WHAT A conversation about identity formed through early online communication: chat rooms, coded messages, role-playing and the tension between virtual dialogue and an offline life marked by insecurity and monotony. The event connects the festival’s idea of polylogue with the continuous inner monologue of Boldizsar’s characters.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Vladimir Mitev
READ BY Alexander Uzunov
7:00 p.m. Bogdan Coșa · Presentation of the work by the 2026 scholarship recipient of the International Elias Canetti Society on his latest novel “Toxic”
WHO Bogdan Cosa is a Romanian writer and translator. He graduated in literature from the University of Bucharest, after which he taught there. He is now devoted entirely to writing. His portfolio includes novels, short stories, poetry, essays, children’s books, critical texts for art catalogues, as well as three screenplays.
WHAT The story is set in the early years of the new millennium, in Transylvania. The protagonists are several boys left in the care of their fathers after their mothers left to work abroad, in the hope that by the time their children finish school, they will have managed to settle down and bring them over, offering them a better life. This novel is presented as an unconventional project that seeks to rethink the deeply ideologised debate on the role of gender within the historical and socio-economic context of Eastern Europe.
WHERE Canetti House
MODERATOR Detelina Kamenova
FINNISAGE – UNTIL NEXT TIME!
The festival is being organised with financial support from the following organisations: the ‘Culture’ programme of the City of Ruse, the Goethe-Institut in Sofia, the Embassy of the Republic of Austria in Bulgaria, and our other partners:
